A vulnerability classified as problematic has been found in GNU tar up to 1.30. Affected is the function sparse_dump_region of the file sparse.c. The manipulation as part of a Archive leads to a out-of-bounds vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-125. The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

GNU Tar through 1.30, when --sparse is used, mishandles file shrinkage during read access, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (infinite read loop in sparse_dump_region in sparse.c) by modifying a file that is supposed to be archived by a different user's process (e.g., a system backup running as root).

The bug was discovered 12/26/2018. The weakness was published 12/26/2018 (Website). The advisory is available at lists.gnu.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2018-20482 since 12/26/2018. Local access is required to approach this attack. The successful exploitation needs a authentication. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 119957 (Debian DLA-1623-1 : tar security update), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. It is assigned to the family Debian Local Security Checks and running in the context l. The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 172328 (OpenSUSE Security Update for tar (openSUSE-SU-2019:1237-1)).

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability. A possible mitigation has been published 5 days after the disclosure of the vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (119957). Similar entry is available at 132121.

Productinfo

Vendor

• GNU

Name

• tar

Version

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 1.2
• 1.3
• 1.4
• 1.5
• 1.6
• 1.7
• 1.8
• 1.9
• 1.10
• 1.11
• 1.12
• 1.13
• 1.14
• 1.15
• 1.16
• 1.17
• 1.18
• 1.19
• 1.20
• 1.21
• 1.22
• 1.23
• 1.24
• 1.25
• 1.26
• 1.27
• 1.28
• 1.29
• 1.30

License

• open-source

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

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